Din Heagney is a writer, editor and researcher in art and design culture.
I LIVE and work on the unceded traditional lands and waters of the Dja Dja Wurrung (Djarra), Wadawurrung, Woi Wurrung Wurundjeri, and Bunurong First Nations.
Photo of Din in his studio (2025).
I was born in the leafy burbs of Melbourne, Australia, and named after my grandfather Dinny, who played for Geelong Football Club. My family moved to central Victoria, where my parents ran pubs, while I ran amuck.
After high school, I returned to Melbourne to study journalism at RMIT University, starting out as a radio producer and then editor of Desktop Magazine: Australian Design + Digital Culture.
Over time my work expanded in the art and design sector, with projects like The Art Pimp, artistic director of Platform Artists Group, editing magazines Artlink and un, books such as Making Space: ARIs in Victoria, Portraits From a Land Without People, and catalogues for the Biennale of Sydney and Venice Biennale Australia Pavilion.
My love for art and design allowed me to work and travel across the USA, Germany, Italy, Greece, and China, collaborating with other creatives while writing for The Art Life and Art21 Magazine.
After returning to Melbourne a few years later, I completed an MFA at the Victorian College of the Arts, focusing my practice in creative research and higher education. I’ve developed and taught courses in design research and critical practice at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at RMIT and Monash Universities.
I’m now completing my PhD (Design) at RMIT University in Melbourne, examining Irish folklore and emigration through speculative non/fiction and publication design. I maintain a creative practice across writing, editing and publication design with a focus on folklore, archives, and cultural memory.
Selected recent work includes:
An Fios Dorcha (The Dark Knowing) – 90-card folkloric oracle deck and extended guidebook (2025–26).
Field research across rural Ireland for An Dorchadas (2024) — foundational research informing my work with folklore and narrative structures.
Book design for artist publications NEU KONSTRUKT 01 and PIER-A (2024).
PhD (Design), RMIT School of Design (2023–).
Research assistance for Prof Jules Moloney, College of Design and Social Context (RMIT University, 2022–23).
Consulting and editing for Garden Gathered by Helen Leighton (The Flower Press, 2022–23).
Consulting, development and interviewing for Flash Forward – featuring 80 new visual art and music commissions (Creative Laneways, City of Melbourne, 2020–22).
Research, development and photography for artist Kelly Koumalatsos (Museums Victoria Publishing, 2019–21).
Online course material for Spectrum: An Exploration in Colour (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 2021).
Research and writing for Female Computers Les Calculatrices (Lily Hibberd, NIRIN: 22nd Biennale of Sydney, 2020).
Lecture on Post-Truth In Art (Writing & Concepts x Channels Festival, Melbourne, 2019).
Research and development for ParraGirls by Lily Hibberd with Bonney Djuric (New South Press, Sydney, 2019).
Book design and copyediting for The Place That Had No Heart: a memoir by Tony Harold Nicholas (Parramatta Female Factory Precinct, Sydney, 2019).
Research, development and copyediting for Associations: Creative Practice & Research edited by James Oliver (Melbourne University Press Academic, 2018).
Editing for academic staff and PhD candidates (Monash MADA, RMIT, UOM, 2018–ongoing).
Collabs include:
Artists + Designers
Simone LeAmon
Lily Hibberd
Louise Whelan
Ash Keating
Selby Ginn
Pandarosa
Helen Leighton
Galleries
National Gallery of Australia (NGA)
National Gallery of Victoria (NGV)
Benalla Art Gallery
CACSA
West Space
Kings ARI
Publishers + Magazines
Museums Victoria Publishing
Melbourne University Press Academic
Thames & Hudson Australia
Mer Paper Kunsthalle
Artlink: Australia & Asia Pacific
Art21 Magazine
The Art Life
un Projects
Cyclops Press
Victorian Initiative of Artists Network
Monument Magazine
Nylon Aust/NZ
Niche Media
The Flower Press
Organisations
City of Melbourne
Biennale of Sydney
Australia Council for the Arts (Venice Biennale)
National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA)
Creative Victoria
Writing & Concepts Series
Channels Festival
Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia (IPTA)
Melbourne Food & Wine Festival
Midsumma Festival
Higher Education
University of New South Wales
Monash University
RMIT University